Listen free for 30 days
-
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
- Narrated by: Alicia Elliott
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $36.84
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
You may also enjoy...
-
All Our Relations
- Finding the Path Forward
- Written by: Tanya Talaga
- Narrated by: Tanya Talaga
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tanya Talaga, the best-selling author of Seven Fallen Feathers and the 2017-2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy, calls attention to an urgent global humanitarian crisis among Indigenous Peoples - youth suicide.
-
-
A true guide to knowing more
- By Magalie on 2020-01-26
Written by: Tanya Talaga
-
Unreconciled
- Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance
- Written by: Jesse Wente
- Narrated by: Jesse Wente
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part memoir and part manifesto, Unreconciled is a stirring call to arms to put truth over the flawed concept of reconciliation, and to build a new, respectful relationship between the nation of Canada and Indigenous peoples.
-
-
Brilliant Must Listen/Read for all Canadians
- By Cass on 2022-02-04
Written by: Jesse Wente
-
Life in the City of Dirty Water
- A Memoir of Healing
- Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Narrated by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There have been many Clayton Thomas-Mullers: The child who played with toy planes as an escape from domestic and sexual abuse, enduring the intergenerational trauma of Canada's residential school system; the angry youngster who defended himself with fists and sharp wit against racism and violence, at school and on the streets of Winnipeg and small-town British Columbia; the tough teenager who, at 17, managed a drug house run by members of his family, and slipped in and out of juvie, operating in a world of violence and pain.
-
-
Opened My Eyes
- By Cheryl on 2023-07-24
Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
-
Islands of Decolonial Love
- Stories & Songs
- Written by: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
- Narrated by: Tantoo Cardinal
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her debut collection of short stories, Islands of Decolonial Love, renowned writer and activist Leanne Simpson vividly explores the lives of contemporary Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially those of her own Nishnaabeg nation. Found on reserves, in cities and small towns, in bars and curling rinks, canoes and community centres, doctors offices and pickup trucks, Simpson's characters confront the often heartbreaking challenge of pairing the desire to live loving and observant lives with a constant struggle to simply survive....
-
-
What a great collection
- By Jeanette M. on 2020-07-12
Written by: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
-
Braiding Sweetgrass
- Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
- Written by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
-
-
Fabulous wise, informative, inspiring, beautifully written book!
- By Carolinebp on 2019-10-01
Written by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
-
True Reconciliation
- How to Be a Force for Change
- Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Narrated by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? This has been true from her time as a leader of British Columbia’s First Nations, as a Member of Parliament, as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, within business communities, and when having conversations with people. Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or to take the next step.
-
-
A must read for Canadians
- By Vicky Wilson on 2023-05-24
Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
-
All Our Relations
- Finding the Path Forward
- Written by: Tanya Talaga
- Narrated by: Tanya Talaga
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tanya Talaga, the best-selling author of Seven Fallen Feathers and the 2017-2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy, calls attention to an urgent global humanitarian crisis among Indigenous Peoples - youth suicide.
-
-
A true guide to knowing more
- By Magalie on 2020-01-26
Written by: Tanya Talaga
-
Unreconciled
- Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance
- Written by: Jesse Wente
- Narrated by: Jesse Wente
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part memoir and part manifesto, Unreconciled is a stirring call to arms to put truth over the flawed concept of reconciliation, and to build a new, respectful relationship between the nation of Canada and Indigenous peoples.
-
-
Brilliant Must Listen/Read for all Canadians
- By Cass on 2022-02-04
Written by: Jesse Wente
-
Life in the City of Dirty Water
- A Memoir of Healing
- Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Narrated by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There have been many Clayton Thomas-Mullers: The child who played with toy planes as an escape from domestic and sexual abuse, enduring the intergenerational trauma of Canada's residential school system; the angry youngster who defended himself with fists and sharp wit against racism and violence, at school and on the streets of Winnipeg and small-town British Columbia; the tough teenager who, at 17, managed a drug house run by members of his family, and slipped in and out of juvie, operating in a world of violence and pain.
-
-
Opened My Eyes
- By Cheryl on 2023-07-24
Written by: Clayton Thomas-Muller
-
Islands of Decolonial Love
- Stories & Songs
- Written by: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
- Narrated by: Tantoo Cardinal
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her debut collection of short stories, Islands of Decolonial Love, renowned writer and activist Leanne Simpson vividly explores the lives of contemporary Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially those of her own Nishnaabeg nation. Found on reserves, in cities and small towns, in bars and curling rinks, canoes and community centres, doctors offices and pickup trucks, Simpson's characters confront the often heartbreaking challenge of pairing the desire to live loving and observant lives with a constant struggle to simply survive....
-
-
What a great collection
- By Jeanette M. on 2020-07-12
Written by: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
-
Braiding Sweetgrass
- Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
- Written by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
-
-
Fabulous wise, informative, inspiring, beautifully written book!
- By Carolinebp on 2019-10-01
Written by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
-
True Reconciliation
- How to Be a Force for Change
- Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Narrated by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is one question Canadians have asked Jody Wilson-Raybould more than any other: What can I do to help advance reconciliation? This has been true from her time as a leader of British Columbia’s First Nations, as a Member of Parliament, as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, within business communities, and when having conversations with people. Whether speaking as individuals, communities, organizations, or governments, people want to take concrete and tangible action that will make real change. They just need to know how to get started, or to take the next step.
-
-
A must read for Canadians
- By Vicky Wilson on 2023-05-24
Written by: Jody Wilson-Raybould
-
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act
- Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality
- Written by: Bob Joseph
- Narrated by: Sage Isaac
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussion on generations of Indigenous peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer. The Indian Act, after 141 years, continues to shape, control, and constrain the lives and opportunities of Indigenous peoples, and is at the root of many lasting stereotypes.
-
-
Essentially Canadian - Must Read.
- By Marcel Molin on 2019-08-23
Written by: Bob Joseph
-
Daughters of the Deer
- Written by: Danielle Daniel
- Narrated by: Jani Lauzon, Tyrone Savage, Brefny Caribou
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1657. Marie, a gifted healer of the Deer Clan, does not want to marry the green-eyed soldier from France who has asked for her hand. But her people are threatened by disease and starvation and need help against the Iroquois and their English allies if they are to survive. When her chief begs her to accept the white man’s proposal, she cannot refuse him, and sheds her deerskin tunic for a borrowed blue wedding dress to become Pierre’s bride.
-
-
Stopped reading at chapter 2
- By Anonymous User on 2022-03-09
Written by: Danielle Daniel
-
Five Little Indians
- A Novel
- Written by: Michelle Good
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them.
-
-
Poor narration,mediocre plot
- By Alan Scheer on 2020-09-16
Written by: Michelle Good
-
Split Tooth
- Written by: Tanya Tagaq
- Narrated by: Tanya Tagaq
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy and friendship and parents' love. She knows boredom and listlessness and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.
-
-
Beautiful, haunting and chilling. It's visceral.
- By JJNeeps on 2019-02-08
Written by: Tanya Tagaq
-
In My Own Moccasins
- A Memoir of Resilience
- Written by: Helen Knott
- Narrated by: Helen Knott
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helen Knott, a highly accomplished Indigenous woman, seems to have it all. But in her memoir, she offers a different perspective. In My Own Moccasins is an unflinching account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, and the wounds brought on by sexual violence. It is also the story of sisterhood, the power of ceremony, the love of family, and the possibility of redemption.
-
-
Heart-wretchingly Honest
- By Julia Mark on 2021-12-12
Written by: Helen Knott
-
Moon of the Crusted Snow
- A Novel
- Written by: Waubgeshig Rice
- Narrated by: Billy Merasty
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again.
-
-
Enjoyable for ALL Canadians
- By TheMer on 2020-01-31
Written by: Waubgeshig Rice
-
From the Ashes
- My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way
- Written by: Jesse Thistle
- Narrated by: Jesse Thistle
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high-school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster-care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually, the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, whose tough-love attitudes quickly resulted in conflicts.
-
-
Real, Raw and so encouraging
- By Cheryl Carter on 2020-11-19
Written by: Jesse Thistle
-
Standoff
- Why Reconciliation Fails Indigenous People and How to Fix It
- Written by: Bruce McIvor
- Narrated by: Lorne Cardinal
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Faced with a constant stream of news reports of standoffs and confrontations, Canada’s “reconciliation project” has obviously gone off the rails. In this series of concise and thoughtful essays, lawyer and historian Bruce McIvor explains why reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is failing and what needs to be done to fix it.
Written by: Bruce McIvor
-
The Break
- Written by: Katherena Vermette
- Narrated by: Michaela Washburn
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break - a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house - she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime. In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim - police, family, and friends - tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night.
-
-
Every Canadian must read
- By Anonymous User on 2018-03-20
Written by: Katherena Vermette
-
For Joshua
- An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son
- Written by: Richard Wagamese
- Narrated by: Craig Lauzon
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Staring the modern world in the eye, Richard Wagamese confronts its snares and perils. He sees people coveting without knowing why, looking for roots without understanding what constitutes home, searching for acceptance without extending reciprocal respect, and longing for love without knowing how to offer it. He sees this because he lived it. For Joshua is Wagamese's love letter to his estranged son. Ojibway tradition calls for fathers to walk their children through the world and teach them their place in it. To teach them they belong.
-
-
A Canadian classic
- By Krow Fischer on 2019-08-18
Written by: Richard Wagamese
-
Son of a Trickster
- Written by: Eden Robinson
- Narrated by: Jason Ryll
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who's often wasted and wielding some kind of weapon. Jared does smoke and drink too much, and he does make the best cookies in town, and his mom is a mess, but he's also a kid who has an immense capacity for compassion and an impulse to watch over people more than twice his age, and he can't rely on anyone for consistent love and support, except for his flatulent pit bull, Baby Killer (he calls her Baby) - and now she's dead.
-
-
Excellent Story
- By sannna on 2017-12-18
Written by: Eden Robinson
-
Sacred Instructions
- Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change
- Written by: Sherri Mitchell, Larry Dossey
- Narrated by: Sherri Mitchell
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing from ancestral knowledge, as well as her experience as an attorney and activist, Sherri Mitchell addresses some of the most crucial issues of our day—including indigenous land rights, environmental justice, and our collective human survival. Sharing the gifts she has received from the elders of her tribe, the Penobscot Nation, she asks us to look deeply into the illusions we have labeled as truth and which separate us from our higher mind and from one another.
-
-
Good book, but not what I expected.
- By Richard Galambos on 2019-08-14
Written by: Sherri Mitchell, and others
Publisher's Summary
Number One National Best Seller
Shortlisted for The 2019 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL • CBC • CHATELAINE • QUILL & QUIRE • THE HILL TIMES • POP MATTERS
A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression, and racism in North America from award-winning Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott.
In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. She engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrifcation, writing, and representation, and in the process makes connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political - from overcoming a years-long battle with head lice to the way Native writers are treated within the Canadian literary industry; her unplanned teenage pregnancy to the history of dark matter and how it relates to racism in the court system; her childhood diet of Kraft Dinner to how systemic oppression is directly linked to health problems in Native communities.
With deep consideration and searing prose, Elliott provides a candid look at our past, an illuminating portrait of our present and a powerful tool for a better future.
What the critics say
"This book is hard, vital medicine. It is a dance of survival and cultural resurgence. Above all, it is breathtakingly contemporary Indigenous philosophy, in which the street is also part of the land, and the very act of thinking is conditioned by struggles for justice and well-being." (Warren Cariou, author of Lake of the Prairies)
"These essays are of fiercest intelligence and courageous revelation. Here, colonialism and poverty are not only social urgencies, but violence felt and fought in the raw of the everyday, in embodied life and intimate relations. This is a stunning, vital triumph of writing." (David Chariandy, author of Brother)
"Wildly brave and wholly original, Alicia Elliot is the voice that rouses us from the mundane, speaks political poetry, and brings us to the ceremony of every day survival. Her words remind us to carry both our weapons and our medicines, to hold both our strength and our open, weeping hearts. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground is what happens when you come in a good way to offer prayer, and instead, end up telling the entire damn truth of it all." (Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves)
Related Collections
More from the same
Author:
Narrator:
What listeners say about A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 2019-04-07
Profoundly vulnerable and robustly analytical
Elliott expertly weaves her personal experiences, social and literary critiques, legacies of systemic violence and their contemporary continuations into a profound discussion that simultaneously holds white supremacy accountable while generously offering space for personal growth and ideally - deeper reconciliation and decolonizing thought.
The work is personally vulnerable while robust and well-researched. The links she draws are insightful and very relevant to current events and politics. I personally really benefitted from the essay: “On Forbidden Rooms and Intentional Forgetting” and thought it offered fresh perspectives and analysis on dealing with trauma and accepting the validity of whatever process you choose for yourself to do so.
This is necessary reading for everyone, and especially North Americans (Canadians in particular). Very timely work in the #MeToo moment, and so important in contexts of ever-growing far right politics and the unfinished work of reconciliation in Canada.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dalan
- 2020-01-17
Changed my Brain with the love and intelligence
This book is so eloquently written, so devastating and moving. It helped me feel more connected to my past and to help me consider what it means to be indigenous in the present day. It filled me with the fire of my ancestors. I'll read anything she's ever written.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Olivia Jayne Schultz
- 2020-11-07
Transformative Read.
Alicia Elliot is a brilliant author. She talks authentically through her own experiences what it means to grow up in Turtle Island, an empire that gaslights, abuses, and continues to perpetuate violence against marginalized populations and indigenous folk. She talks about the failures of social workers taking children away from loving families without solving any root issues, making it seem like it is the indigenous family's fault, and how the jail system only perpetuates abuse and violence, rather than solving it. history matters. indigenous voices matter. transformative read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-10-20
In my humble opinion
This book is profoundly disturbing and yet brutally honest. The insights that Alicia shares with us and the transparent vulnerability create a connection to the author. Written in picturesque prose, makes a difficult subject matter easier to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn, grow and open their mind. Thanks to Alicia for providing this opportunity to others and for beautifully written essays. “Know better do better “
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tammy Ruddle
- 2020-07-04
Amazing! Gripping! A work of art!
I am awestruck by Alicia’s courage and vulnerability. Her ability to open eyes to the abuses of her people as if we are standing in front of a family portrait is incredible. I am in awe of her bravery and story telling capabilities. Keep telling the story of your people the way you want in the way you want. People that want to learn are listening!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sally C
- 2019-09-28
A great read! Thought provoking!
Even though I am a settler I could relate to a lot of feelings about family that Elliot shared. In my attempt to understand life in Canada from the indigenous perspective, Elliott led me to some really profound answers! She left me with a sense that I’ve only begun to scratch the surface on what it means to be marginalized, dismissed, and abused as an indigenous person. Thank you Ms. Elliott for giving me a few more pieces to this ever-growing puzzle I call my quest for truth on what the “real Canada” looks like.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chehala Leonard
- 2020-10-01
Powerful
One of the most impactful books I've listened to in a long time. Thank you, Alicia for taking me as a listener on a journey with you. It resonated, it was powerful, and impactful. Nia:wen!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gillian Matheson
- 2020-08-31
Purchase this book!! You won’t be disappointed.
Alicia Elliot beautifully weaves her personal experiences and insights through themes of mental health, inter-generational trauma, colonization and decolonization, capitalism, racism, patriarchy, art and Indigenous sovereignty. She’s brilliant and a delight to listen to. You will learn SO much and hopefully re-evaluate your perspectives and assumptions about what is means to be; white, settler, Indigenous, and mixed race human on Turtle Island.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 2020-08-18
Good read
This is a book I would recommend to all Canadians.
It’s what we need to know and we’re never taught.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Simran Sandhu
- 2020-08-12
Loved it!
Every North American should hear Alicia's words. She speaks to her own story, but also that of many other Indigeneous and BIPOC community members.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful